Cashing-in from Flopenhagen to Cancún
As a two-week, UN-sponsored climate change jamboree opened in Cancún, Mexico, participants hoped to salvage something from the snow-dumped wreck they left behind 11 months ago, at what the French now label, Flopenhagen. Many Governments have gone global-lukewarm after the Copenhagen fiasco while voter concerns have shifted to global banks, global recession and severe economic [...]
Snow Chokes Paris: Live Traffic Information for All France
Live Traffic Information Centre France Whole Weather Summary National Road Information Bulletin for December 9, 2010 at 08:00 Weather Summary REGION ILE DE FRANCE Traffic conditions: Because of traffic conditions, the following routes are cut for a period known: N118 Vélizy In Ulis in both directions (78-91 Dep) Exterior N104 at the height of the [...]
Hermès Saddles up Against LVMH
Christmas at Hermès this year will see the family heirs fighting to retain control of the 173-year-old Paris fashion house which started life making fine saddles and equestrian accessories for the hunting and racing fraternities. Thierry Hermès founded his firm near the Grands Boulevards in Paris in 1837, opening his most famous store at 24 [...]
EU States Curb Freedom of Speech?
The International Free Press Society sponsored a freedom of speech conference November 27, 2010 in Copenhagen. Below is the opening part of an address by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff. In it she raises serious concerns about the impacts on freedom of speech of EU legislation which comes into effect November 28, 2010. The relevant directive is the “Council [...]
Euro Crisis Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
The cry has gone up in the financial heartlands of Lisbon, Madrid and Dublin, the bears among the bond traders are salivating over the woes of the common currency, that means of course the euro in the pockets of the French resident readers of this newspaper and everyone else in the zone. Be afraid we [...]
Writing on the (Facebook) Wall? Don’t
A French Employment Tribunal has just ruled that an engineering firm’s dismissal of three employees for badmouthing managers and the HR department on the social networking site Facebook, was “justified”. The Employment Tribunal had been asked to rule that the dismissal by the Paris firm Alten based at Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) was illegal because the Facebook [...]
Swiss Max – The Genteel Highwayman
He could be everyone’s favourite grandfather, silver-haired, distinguished, well-spoken, tall and imposing but the man in the picture has earned a formidable reputation on the highways and byways of France as a consummate but charming rogue. Matteo Schaub or Swiss Max as news reports call him is, according to this website set up to stop [...]
Strikes Over? Now Here’s Your Homework
Striking students who blockaded schools in many parts of France during the recent anti-government pension protests, keeping teachers and non-strikers from class ahead of half-term, are now learning about payback. According to the Rue89 newspaper the leaders of the blockade at the Lycée Galilée de Combs-la-Ville, Seine et Marne (a southern Paris suburb) have been [...]
Can You Keep Up?
With thanks to Twitter follower @claudebenard
Crazy Catalan Cows Wreak Village Havoc
Mad, bad, Catalan cows are terrorising the peaceful villagers of L’Albère in the Pyrenees-Orientales, goring walkers, trashing vehicles and skinny-dipping in private swimming pools. To the indignation of the locals, hot-blooded Spanish bovines, imbued with the El Conquistador spirit, pour down the mountain pass from La Jonquera, Girona in northeastern Spain, just 11 km south, [...]
One Million Acts of Kindness
Here’s a great idea: 1 million d’actions pour la gentillesse November 13 2010 has been named “La Journée de la Gentillesse”, Acts of Kindness Day and this page shows the thousands of people around France who have committed to doing just that in their community. To add yours go here See the videos of others [...]
De Gaulle: 40 Years On, France still Widowed
Stunned crowds on the streets of Paris that cold November day 40 years ago, watched in dismay and disbelief while TV screens in local cafes relayed the sombre words: “General De Gaulle is dead, France is a widow”. The words as spoken by his successor Georges Pompidou, in a voice heavy with grief, were: “Le général de Gaulle est mort. La France [...]
Tea Time, Will France Have a Party?
With President Obama hobbled by his country’s Tea Party revolt, are there any signs of equivalent rage in Europe? Might voter anger at fiscal irresponsibility, cross the Atlantic to shores where 24 million Europeans are out of work, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and the UK are garbed in austerity hairshirts and bankers are once more pocketing [...]
Hungry? Try this Super Marmite
Super Marmite — that’s as in French for cooking pot not the ubiquitous spread — is the latest techno French food fad to hit Paris. This mobile phone app-driven dream is for hungry, time-starved and IT savvy young Parisians who would prefer their neighbour’s wonderful cooking to their own assuredly less able efforts. The idea, [...]
CittaSlow: Hail Segonzac’s Snail
Go slow, made a lifestyle virtue by Italians, has arrived in France where Segonzac, pop 2200, is first in the country to gain a CittaSlow (say “CHITTA-Slow”) snail award, a close cousin to Italy’s Slow Food crusade. Segonzac, in the cognac heartlands (Charente region, 16130), now wears the burlesque jibe of Rabelais’s Pantagruel as a [...]
France’s Kilogram is Losing Weight
If you’re a weight watcher here’s the good news, those stubborn kilos on your scales are themselves losing weight so perhaps you won’t need to bother. Specks of dust are the culprit and these are affecting the weight of the kilo as it is presently defined. So for the past 25 years scientists have been [...]
